Annealing and heat-treating furnace



I I. WEINTZ. ANNEALING AND HEAT TREATING FURNACE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. I6, I917.

v Patented May 4, 1920.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.'

J. WE INTZ. ANNEALING AND HEAT TREATING FURNACE.

APPLICATION'FILED NOV. 16, I917.

J. WEINTZ.

ANNEALING AND HEAT TREATING FURNACE.

APP LI'GA'I ION FILED NOV. 16, 19!?- Patented May 4, 1920;

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JACOB WEIN'TZ. OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASS IGNOR TO THE STRONG, GARLISLE AND HAMMOND COMPANY, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

ANNEALING AND HEAT-TREATING FURNACE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 4, 1920.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAooB WEINTZ, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Annealing and Heat-Treating Furnaces, of which the folvation of a furnace in which the present invention is embodied; Fig. 2 1s a sectlonalfront elevation in the plane of line 2-2 on Fig. 3 of said furnace; Fig. 3 is a longitudi nal se tion of said furnace on the plane of line 33 on Fig. 2 showing the work carrier elevated; Fig. 4 is a similar section of a part of said furnace, adjacent one of the cylinders showing the work carrier down; Fig. 5 :is a perspective view of, one ofthe anti-friction devices on which the work car rier is supported; Fig. 6 is a front elevation partly sectioned of the mechanism for moving the work carrier longitudinally; Fig. 7 is a side elevation of. said mechanism, and a sectional view of the valve mechanism which controls the flow of the pressure fluid to and from the fluid pressure cylinders.

The furnace itself may have any desired mechanical construction. It contains a long furnace chamber 10, the floor 12 of which is substantially horizontal.

The roof 13 of the furnace is, however, slightly inclined downw ard from the rear to the front end of the furnace. The term front as applied to this furnace herein refers to the end thereof into which the articles to be treated are fed, and the rear end is that end from which the heated articles are delivered. The furnace as shown is an oil burning furnace. The burners 14 are placed near the roof at the rear end of the furnace chamber. The flues 15 for the discharge of the products of combustion are located adjacent the front end of this furnace chamber. 1

In the floor of this furnace are at least two longitudinally extended vertical slots 16 which extend from the front to the rear end of the furnace. Preferably there are three of these slots, although any desired number maly be provided.

n the construction as shown the parts of the floor near the sides of the furnace are the tops of the arched side walls; while the intermediate parts of the furnace floor are supported on standards 18.

At the front end of the furnace there is a skeleton work receiving table 20. The top surfaces of the upper members are in substantially thesame plane and serve as a substantial forwardcontinuation of the floor of the furnace.

The work carrier is a substantially rigid frame having for its upper members as many rails 30 as there are slots 16 in the furnace floor. These rails extend lengthwise of the furnace up through the said slots 'in the furnace floor, and are somewhat longer than the furnace floor. In fact, they always extend in front of the furnace and beneath the work table. Likewise at their rear end they extend approximately to the rear end of the furnace floor when this work carrier frame has been moved rearward as far as it will go.

The specific construction of this work carrier which the drawing shows is the best construction now known to me; but obviousl the invention in its broader aspects is not restricted to this specific construction.

The work carrier, as shown, includes two saddles 33, one located near the front and one nearthe rear of the furnace, and of course, below the furnace fioor. Rails 34 are rigidly fixed upon these saddles, and the work supporting rails 30 are fixed upon these rails. 7

Below each saddle is a fluid pressure cylinder 40 of suitable capacity for the purpose. The piston 41 of each cylinder projects upward and carries on its upper end a horizontal plate 42 on which rests a plurality of transversely extended horizontal anti-friction rollers 44 which'are rotatably mounted in a cage 45.. The lower late of each saddle rests upon the anti-friction rollers supported as stated by the plate 42 of the ass0- ciated piston 41. When these two pistons are at their "low points the top surfaces of the work carrier rails are below the level of the furnace floor. When these two pistons are raised, however, the top edges of the carrier rails are raised above the level of the furnace floor. When the carrier is at its upper position it is moved rearward by means to be presently explained; and when it has been lowered it will be moved forward by the same mechanism; the said carrier moving therefore in a rectangular path.

This forwardand backward movement of the work carrier is effected by a constantly rotating crank wheel 50 and a connecting rod 51 which connects it with a bracket 37 fixed to and depending from said work carrier 30. This crank wheel is the terminal member of a train of reducing gearing which may be driven by an electric motor. This reducing gearing need not be described in detail, and in fact is not material to the invention. It is,however, desirable that the distance which said carrier moves forward and backward shall be variable, because, if the work pieces are small, they should be moved through the furnace in .a shorter time than if said pieces are large. To enable the operator to control the distance of forward and backward travel of this carrier, the crank wheel is formed with ahorizontal dovetail slot 50 in which a slide 55 is fitted, which slide may be moved in the slot and clamped to the wheel at any point in the length of said slot. This slide carries the crank pin 56 by which the front end of the connecting rod 51 is connected.

In order to properly synchronize the up-.

ward and downward movements of this work carrier wlth respect to the forward and backward movements thereof this same rotating crank wheel is utilized to actuate the controlling valve 60 for the two fluid pressure cylinders 40. A valve casing 61 is fixed in position adjacent this crank wheel. In the upper part of this valve casing is a valve chamber 62, theupper part of which is in open communication with the source of compressed air or steam or such other pressure fluid as may be employed. In the bottom of this valve chamber are-two ports 63, 64, which communicate with the pipe that leads to the fluid pressure cylinders, the third port 65 is that through which the pressure fluid mayescape from the valve casing. In this valve chamber is a slide valve 60 for controlling these ports. This.

slide valve isconnected with a horizontal bar 67 which extends out of the sides of the valve casing through stufling boxes. Near the two ends of this bar suitable connections are made with two 0 erating levers 68, 69, that are pivoted to a xture and their lower ends are continued down to a position such that they will be engaged by a cam projection 58 on the periphery of the crank wheel 50. The drawings, except Fig. 4, show the described parts in the position they occupy when the carrier frame has been elevated and moved rearward. Just as it reaches the rear end of the path the cam projection has engaged the lever and thereby moved the slide valve to the position such. that the valve will close the port and the D-groove 66 in its lower face will connect the two ports. Immediately this is done, the pressure fluid in the two cylinders is allowed to escape through port 65,"whereupon the pistons will be moved down by the weight of the work carrier frame which they support; while they are down thecam wheel continuing its rotation, moves the carrier frame forward. During this movement the tops of the rails are below the furnace floor, and therefore do not engage work pieces thereon. lVhen this cam wheel has completed this half of its revolution and at the time When the carrier frame is in its foremost position, this same 'cam projection 58 on the crank wheel will engage the lever 69 and will reverse the position of said slide valve, whereupon the pressure fluid will flow through pipe 70 into both cylinders below the pistons which will be lifted, and, with them the work carrier, until the top surfaces of the rails 31 are above the furnace floor. Obviously all of the work pieces on the furnace floor will be: lifted and will be supported on the rails. The work carrier remains in its described elevated position while'thecrank wheel is making its next half revolution during which said carrier frame is moved rearward, taking the work pieces with it. Atthe end of this half revolution of the crank wheel the cam projection thereon engages the lever and shifts the position of the slide valve, whereupon as before stated, the pressure fluid escapes from the cylinders, the pistons descend and with them the work carrier frame, thereby depositing the work pieces onthe floor of the quenching tank 81.- Every time one piece of work moves all of the others are similarly moved. .As the work pieces are raised from the furnace floorthe heat comes into direct contact with those parts of the work which were in contact with the furnace floor; and

when the work pieces rest on said. floor, those parts which had before rested on the rails 31 will be in direct contact with the -cated beneath said saddles, a plurality of anti-friction rollers supported on the tops of said plungers .and turn supporting said saddles; .a frame in which each set of rollers have their bearings to preserve their spaced relation, means for periodically rais ing and lowering said plungers, and means for imparting a longitudinal movement in one direction to said carrier frame when the plungers are at. thetops'of their paths and for imparting movement in the opposite direction to the carrier frame when the plungers are at the bottoms of their paths.

2. The combination of a furnace having longitudinal slots in its floor, a work carrier frame having'rails which are movable in said slot, two vertical fluid pressure cylinders located below said work carrier, valve mechanism for said cylinders, vertically movable pistons for said cylinders lying beneath said Work carrier frame, antifriction devices interposed between said pistons and work carrier. frame, a motor, and means operable thereby to move said work carrier longitudinally forward and backward, and to actuate said valve mechanism whereby said carrier will be continuously moved upward, then rearward, then downward, and then forward to the starting point. 7

3. The combination of a furnace having longitudinal slots in its floor, a carrier frame having rails which are movable in said slots, two fluid pressure cylinders below said carrier frame, pistons for said cylinders, transversely extended rollers mounted on the upper end of each piston for engagement with parts of the'carrier frame, a rotatable shaft carrying a crank pin, a bracket fixed to the carrier frame, a connepti-ng rod conto control the flow of pressure fluid to and from said cylinders, a cam operable by said shaft, and mechanism-operable by said cam for moving said valve.

4:. The combination of a furnace whose floor is provided with longitudinal slots, a carrier frame having parallel rails which are movable in said slots, transversely extended saddles upon which said rails are secured, vertical fluid pressure 0 linders located-beneath said saddles, vertically movable pistons for said cylinders having horizontal plates upon their upper ends, antifriction rollers interposed between said plates and the lower surfaces of said saddles whereby the work carrier is supported, a motordriven crank disk suitably connected with said work carrier to impart longitudinal movement thereto, and means operable by said crank disk for controlling the flow of pressure fluid to and from said fluid pressure cylinders.

1 In testimony whereof, I hereunto affix my signature.

JACOB WEINTZ.

meeting said crank pin and bracket, a valve 

